This programme aims to build livelihoods and food security in the food system to be relevant for Africa, while embracing the global need for technological innovation by paying more attention to indigenous African crops and those that are intensively consumed on the continent, as well as entrenching the importance of grain crops that are of global relevance for food security. It also focuses on the economic costs and benefits of innovation for small-scale agriculture.
Projects under this umbrella explored SMART food processing and drought responses in cereals and legumes, with specific work packages addressing technological innovation in food energy-density reduction, nutrient-density improvement, and the breeding for drought and heat stress tolerance in crops. The research has been widely cited with recent and highly cited papers in food science, and was used in 2023 by research teams in India working on recent trends in food preservation, as well as by researchers in Iran working on biocontrol bacteria.
The PIs for this programme are Professor Naushad Emmambux (UP) and Professor Ndiko Ludidi (UWC).
Climate change resilient livestock
Fungi and Mycotoxins in crops
Food Sovereignty and Organic Farming
Comparative study – staple cereals and legumes to drought and salinity
Cropping systems and soil health in SA
This project involves identifying field test sites to determine their soil health status through an assessment of selected biological, chemical and physical soil health indicators, to establish initial baseline values. Specific cropping systems / soil management systems will be implemented and the soil health indicators monitored over time to determine the impact of each intervention on the soil health status. Finally, a conceptual soil health model will be developed for the selected cropping systems relevant to small medium and large farming systems.
Reclamation of heavy metal contamination and soils
Research shows that a specific class of molecules produced by a selection of plant species enhances heavy metal uptake from the soil while preventing damage of tissues by the heavy metals in these plants. This make the plants capable of growing very well in heavy metal contaminated soils while removing the heavy metals from the soil. This project seeks to identify plant species that produce these molecules and study the mode of action of such molecules in the identified plants.
Drought Responses in cereals and legumes
This project will conduct comparative studies to provide understanding of genetic and physiological determinants of sensitivity or tolerance of diverse maize, sorghum, soybean and cowpea lines to drought.
SMART Foods
The main food security and nutrition problems addressed in this project are (i) the triple burden of malnutrition (a. protein energy malnutrition, b. micronutrient or hidden malnutrition and, c. overweight and obesity (ii) reducing food losses.The project is two-fold: (i) SMART foods to reduce diet related non-communicable diseases and (ii) appropriate food processing technologies for manufacturing the SMART foods by SMMEs.